Proverbs 1

1The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,● 2To know wisdom, and instruction:● 3To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:● 4To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.● 5A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth shall possess governments.● 6He shall understand a parable and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.● 7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.● 8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:● 9That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.● 10My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.● 11If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:● 12Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.● 13We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.● 14Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.● 15My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.● 16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.● 17But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.● 18And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.● 19So the ways of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.● 20Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:● 21At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:● 22O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?● 23Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.● 24Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.● 25You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.● 26I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.● 27When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:● 28Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find me:● 29Because they have hated instruction, and received not the fear of the Lord,● 30Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.● 31Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.● 32The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.● 33But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.●